I Finish the Heysen Trail

 

Finally I’m off to Burra to complete the Heysen. I left Burra to Spalding until last for two reasons: the bus timetable is such that I am compelled to spend eight days on a five day walk, and this part of the trail gets a worse wrap than the rest. In the event it did have some very uninteresting parts but also some of the best scenery on the Heysen, and the spacing of the campsites meant it was not hard to spend seven (shortish) days on it.

May 19, 2022 Burra was cold when I emerged and while I was waiting for the bakery to open I learned about the feud between the owners of the town’s two other cafes.

I had road walking out of Burra, through North Burra which was full of historic buildings and then by paddocks, before turning off to follow fence lines. More steep hills including the worst since the incredibly steep one on the south coast. The hills started out dry but became greener and I can see how the lambs have grown in a few weeks. There were some nice views from a ridge top over more hills and out towards the northeastern plains. It was sunny but there was an icy wind. I got to Wandallah shelter for an early lunch; the shelter and toilet were in a fenced enclosure although I saw no sheep around. I was keen to put up my new tent. Then I sat in the shelter, out of the wind, admiring it. 16 kms

May 20 I got up late so the sun had been out for a while and it wasn’t too cold. My first ten kms were along fences, never a flat moment, including a dead straight four kms where the only excitement was crossing on a stile to the other side of the fence.

(The farmers must have had a laugh agreeing the route with the Heysen people; here and elsewhere there would clearly have been other ways to do this.) I had had enough of fences and was glad to turn onto a track across a reserve with mallee scrub and saltbush. I was also out of the cold wind for a while. There was a view of the Mt Bryan range and to the east endless farmland. Black Jack hut with its completely open-air toilet (the walls fell down last year) was a new clean cabin but I camped. 16.5 kms

May 21 Today’s hiking was as good as any on the whole Heysen and totally unexpected. It was a perfect sunny day. I continued in the non-farmland with mallee and saltbush and passed an atmospheric ruined hut,

then turned into an official but unnamed reserve. This was a wonderful bowl with many rock-capped peaks surrounding and undulating hills, scrub on red earth and kangaroos.

During a break off track I saw a sleepy lizard.

The trail crossed many dry gullies and wide stony creeks and went through sparse forest. I saw beautiful green/blue parrots (Mallee ringnecks) and took another break in a steep sided rocky gorge. And this area doesn’t even have a name! I was just thinking how remote the place felt when a runner came past. 

Then I was in Caroona Creek Conservation Park and following the creek until I reached the shelter.

By early afternoon the day had cooled down and the wind came up. The shelter was among the mallee and was spacious enough for me to try my tent in freestanding mode on the pavers. A mouse got inside my tent in the night, woke me up running all over my sleeping bag, and later bit a hole in the netting from the outside trying to reach the used food wrappers I had put in the pocket above my head to evade mice. 15 kms

May 22 A much warmer morning. I was walking on a scrubby plateau of saltbush and bluebush with stringybark mallee, mainly on 4WD tracks. I passed a former homestead where only the fireplace remained. Then I came to Tourilie Gorge, surrounded by high scrubby hills. I took a short detour to Tourilie hut, which was in an idyllic setting above the creek but below the hills, and had a break sitting on the porch. (Selfie.)

Just after leaving I saw an emu tearing across the hillside while a bunch of sheep watched, bemused, and then they turned their attention to me. 

The gorge was great; a bit less rugged than the Flinders gorges but similar, and I walked in the rocky/shale chips creek bed.

The hillsides around were bare red earth and spinifex. I had a long climb out of the gorge through scrub with a view of higher hills on the horizon ahead. It’s like a chunk of central Australia has been transplanted into the farming country of mid north SA.

A bit later I was back in farming country on gravel roads. It was very hot and exposed walking on long straight roads. I was glad to get to Mt Bryan East schoolhouse, a well equipped but rather trashed Heysen hut. Pleased to find a lot of reading material. The hut marks the half way point of the Heysen. I slept inside without rodent activity. 18.5 kms

May 23. Some gravel roads

then I started my ascent of Mt Bryan on a mix of trail and grassy slopes. I veered off the curriculum to do some scrambling over rocks and rejoined the trail near the grassy summit (935 m). Surprisingly to me this is almost the highest point on the Heysen (Mt Brown is the highest point followed by Mt Remarkable followed by Mt Bryan). There were sheep and lambs up top. The 360 degree views were amazing over green hills, farmland and many wind farms, all working away. I sat by the trig point to have a coffee and a hiker came by from the Hallett direction; we had a long chat about our hiking experiences.

I set off keenly on the descent and was soon going the wrong way; I realised I had another hump to get over. The real descent was through green paddocks and very pleasant in the sunshine, then the last kms to Hallett were on gravel roads and quite dull. I went to the store to buy food, eat food and have a rest. The designated sleeping area is the disused Hallett railway station and I decided to camp; a good call as it wasn’t long before I saw a mouse in the building. 18 kms

May 24 Today started out like it was going to be my most boring day of the entire Heysen. Long straight gravel roads, brown ploughed fields, no animals and a fleet of huge trucks going back and forth throwing up masses of dust. I walked towards wind farms then more wind farms. 

Around midday I met two Heysen hikers coming from Spalding, and after a chat they took on my boring roads and my walking improved markedly. Soon I passed the quarry the trucks were coming from so no more dust. The route climbed onto a dry grassy range with extensive views (mainly brown farmland and wind farms) and I remained high for the rest of the day. I came to Whistling Trig tank, notorious for being windy, and it was windy but I’m sure it gets a lot worse; I ate lunch there hanging on tight to my roll. Then I undulated along the grass and thistle tops doing the usual fence line thing. I had no campsite to aim for (there’s nothing for 49 kms between Hallett and Spalding) and when I reached a saddle at the foot of a steep hill I decided to stop as it was secluded and I saw a flat spot. It was challenging to camp among thistles and I laid out all my things under my air mat to protect it.

Later I heard/noticed sheep in the lower part of the paddock. 28 kms

May 25 It started raining in the night and the wind picked up. In the morning there were sheep close by but they soon ran away when I came out of the tent. I saw a huge rainbow over the valley. I remained on the hills a bit longer, gradually descending, and the weather was clearing apart from the wind. I came to roads and then the Bundaleer aqueduct path and I stopped for a break but it wasn’t pleasant sitting in the wind.

I continued beside the aqueduct heading into the wind and having a change of pace going through many gates. I startled a sleepy lizard so much it had its tongue out by the time I was close. The highlight was a huge bridge over a wide dry creek. It was basically a slog. I turned off for a last fence line and came into Spalding. Very quiet there. I had a coffee and pie at the general store (grateful that it was open) and got a room at the partially open pub. 21 kms

I have now completed the Heysen apart from a small gap close to Adelaide so I took the bus back to Adelaide to walk that bit.

May 28 This promised to be my second wettest day on the entire Heysen (my wettest being my very first day leaving Quorn). I took the bus to Morialta Conservation Park and went back to where I left the trail last December. It was already raining. I climbed steeply and had some views over Adelaide before entering a cloud and remaining inside it for hours. I was walking through forest but I could only see the trees immediately next to the trail. After some road walking I had a long and extremely steep descent, which I found really nerve wracking, to a flowing creek. (Some sheep were there and they didn’t even bother to run away.) This gave nice flat walking with better visibility but was a prelude to a long climb in Montacute Conservation Park. At the top I entered Mt Crawford state forest and was pleased to see I only had ten kms to go. 

I saw some other walkers along here and as we descended through the sticky clay I caught up to them. They were walking a bit of the Heysen and had been doing parts of the trail for ten years. I ended up walking with them for two hours. This was great - I was quite cold and wet and we had a lot to talk about, which took my mind off the discomfort.

It transpired that one of the guys was someone whose posts I’m always reading on the bushwalking forum. But then a truly amazing coincidence emerged: when I was at Ironstone hut in Tassie a local hiker told me a story about how he had recently found a mobile phone while hiking off track and had been able to contact the owner and the phone had been lost 18 months prior but still worked; when I heard this story it was pretty surprising considering the local rainfall and passage of time. One of the walkers today was the owner of that phone! He just randomly mentioned that he once lost his phone in Tasmania and it was found, and every detail matched.

Towards the end of the walk the weather appeared to be improving with a little blue sky, but it soon poured again. We parted company at their car about two kms before Cudlee Creek and I continued alone, then we met up again at the cafe; it was great to be able to celebrate my finish with other walkers. 26 kms

And that is how I finished the Heysen. 

Total distance walked (including getting on and off the trail): 1178 kms in 51 days

Here’s the timeline:

Cape Jervis to Mt Compass: 135 kms; 29/4-3/5/21

Mt Compass to Bridgewater: 68 kms; 8/4-10/4/22

Bridgewater to Morialta Conservation Park: 30 kms; 14/12/21

Morialta to Cudlee Creek: 26 kms; 26/5/22

Cudlee Creek to Tanunda: 76 kms; 4/5-7/5/22

Tanunda to Burra: 166 kms; 26/5-31/5/21

Burra to Spalding: 134 kms; 19/5 - 25/5/22 

Spalding to Crystal Brook: 82 kms; 30/4 - 2/5/22

Crystal Brook to Quorn: 191 kms; 11/4-20/4/22

Quorn to Parachilna: 270 kms; 11/7- 21/7/19

 

More Heysen

As soon as the Heysen was about to be fully open I rushed off to walk more of it, as always having to fit in with the infrequent bus services. A walk north from Spalding to Crystal Brook was convenient for the trail opening (just about), the buses and for me. After that section I could fill in a gap further south. 

April 30 Last day that the Heysen is officially closed. The first 19 kms out of Spalding followed the Bundaleer aqueduct (no water) beside harvested wheat fields and sheep paddocks. It was gently rolling dry hills and easy walking. A lot of the Heysen route here is shared with the Mawson bike trail and this was lucky for me because the Mawson doesn’t close for the fire season, so even without a bike I could be where I was quite legitimately.

I had a break at Bundaleer campsite which was in a pretty setting among trees. After that the trail was much more rewarding: I walked the length of a shallow valley, crossing many eroded gullies, lots of grass trees on the hillsides and lots of sheep, who thought the trail was for them rather than me; the lambs were especially confused. I hoped the farmer would not be alerted to my presence by the din they made.

Leaving the valley the trail became wooded and I got to Curnows Hut, a restored stone hut in a forest clearing, for both Mawson and Heysen users. There were a lot of birds around the hut, noisy and busy. I camped outside the hut. 31.5 kms

May 1 Fairly soon after leaving the hut on wooded trails I found I was not in the right place and I did a little variation to get back on track, doing an extra 2 kms. (This error, I found later, was the result of an earlier reroute where they had not removed all the reroute signs.) It was all forestry tracks although not much in the way of trees. I spent the next hours crossing farmland, following fences or creeks and seeing lots of sheep. It was really pleasant and quiet. A lot of the trail was through high grass where a way through had been flattened, presumably by the sheep since walkers should not have been there until today. Then I climbed onto a stony ridge (everywhere the ground is covered with stones unless they have been cleared into heaps) of dry hills and walked along with dry hills to my left and a patchwork of fields to my right. I could see a long way in all directions. There was the occasional ruin of a stone hut. 

On my way down I met a group of three hikers and one of them was the woman I met at Waukerie Gorge on my previous Heysen section, like me doing another section.

The next part was a long slog on a gravel road into Georgetown, 8 kms which felt longer. I met a man walking a bit of the Heysen with vehicle support; he had been with one of the organised Heysen groups to do a big chunk but they had to abandon their plan because so many of the group got covid. 

Georgetown looked a cute little town, nice and sunny, so I made myself coffee in the park; on Sunday afternoon everything was closed. I continued on to Hiskeys Hut, an easy few kms on a gravel road. The hut was another restored stone place with a view over the yellow hills. It was a lovely still evening with a rim of red along the horizon after sunset. I slept in the hut. 30.5 kms

May 2 I had another morning of fence lines, sheep grazing and farmland, less hilly than yesterday, just undulating. Again it was nice in the sunshine and silence (apart from birds doing their thing). This is reputed to be a very dull part of the trail but I like it.  

I stopped for an early snack in a small patch of trees in a gully. After that the route was back on dirt roads, with a completely unnecessary detour up a hill, then the last 2 kms were along the highway. Until this highway not one vehicle has passed me on any road I have walked during this section; I have always been able to walk down the middle of the road.

It had become hot and I was keen to reach Crystal Brook. I did not expect much to be going on there so I was happy to notice a busy bakery/cafe. I went inside for a hard earned doughnut and coffee. 20 kms

Then I got the bus back to Adelaide to walk part of a section south of Tanunda.

May 4 I got the bus to Cudlee Creek (the only passenger) and took the short spur trail onto the Heysen. I had some roads before going into forestry plantations and climbing. I came to a wonderful grassy ridge - at the same time as a brief rain shower - and was up there a long time with great 360 degree views over farmland, small settlements, orchards, reservoirs and rolling hills. It was all so much greener than I have been used to. I had a coffee break sitting on a stile. Then I had steep hills in woodland, hard work. I went into another area of plantation pine forest and followed another ridge. More rain was coming and I wanted to get to Scotts shelter before it started. Meanwhile I had another steep descent and corresponding steep climb.

Near the top the pine trees gave way to mallee and grass trees but the shelter was among pines. I was quite cold, even though it had been sunny most of the day, and I was pleased the shelter gave good protection from the wind which suddenly came up. The rain didn’t return until the night but I never warmed up. At dusk masses of kangaroos came to graze on one cleared hillside. 20 kms

May 5 It was cooler but sunny. The forest morphed back into native bush and I entered Warren Conservation Park; the trail went right across the middle of the park, crossing a huge bowl of grass trees, stringybarks and wattle. All I could see was bush. This involved a long downhill to a dry creek and a long climb. Once out of the park I continued to climb a grassy ridge to the top of Tower Hill with masses of kangaroos and great views of forest and farmland. I descended back into Mt Crawford forest and then had a choice of routes; I picked the one that went past a picnic area among the pines so I could have a break. I came to Warren Reservoir, crossed it and immediately had a problem: a large sign across my path said Danger, Tree Felling in progress, No Access. It would be a long way to backtrack so I decided to risk walking through the area as I knew I would hear a lot of noise if they were felling trees and I could quickly turn back. I marched those kms rapidly and saw/heard nothing. This did mean that I reached my planned campsite, Centennial Drive shelter, rather early. That too was lucky as it soon started raining and later rained a lot. The shelter was in a large clearing between the forest and the South Para River (lots of reeds, little water), beneath Mt Crawford. I put up my tent inside the shelter. 19.5 kms

May 6 When I got up I was in a cloud.

I walked up Mt Crawford knowing I wouldn’t see anything; it was a nice native bush trail. The descent on steps was a nuisance for my knee. Then I had a stretch of steep but short roller coaster hills between paddocks and pines, at the end of which I was once again in the wrong place. I made my own route to the Old Schoolhouse campsite and had a break, having done an extra 4 kms, and I enjoyed a short interlude of sunshine.

From here I appeared from my gps to have a choice of routes so I opted to do half on one and half on the other using a linking road. I began back in the pines then had a nice ridge top wooded section on the Wirra Wirra hills. I switched from this half to gravel roads, hilly, beside vines with autumn leaves and sheep paddocks. I am clearly in the Barossa now.

I had lunch sitting on a rock and watched the sky get black while the wind picked up. Soon it was raining but not for long. I walked along fences in a wooded reserve, then more dirt roads and a return to the forest. It seemed a long day, always up and down; I never realised SA is so hilly. 

After a final batch of hills, walking between paddocks of cows and pine plantations, I got to Rossiters hut which was small with a great outlook over the forest towards Mt Kaiserstuhl. I read about the resident mice in the log book and chose to camp. 23 kms 

May 7 Cold but sunny morning. It was mostly downhill today, first in the grass tree/tea tree/stunted gums Kaiserstuhl Conservation Park and then along fences. Suddenly there are lots of scattered small granite boulders. Coming down I had a fabulous view over the whole Barossa Valley, dotted with the yellow of the vineyards. I stopped for coffee at a stile to enjoy the view. The last part into Tanunda was along flat straight roads and something to be done as fast as possible, proper coffee beckoning. 13 kms